Gillispie Press Conference Quotes

by:Matt Jones02/05/08
From Today..... Opening Statement… “We’re really excited and loving the way our team is maturing right now. It’s such a joy and it makes me so proud to go to practice everyday because these guys are giving fantastic effort. We always try to play hard, play smart, play together, and we’re getting closer to being able to do that on a consistent basis. There was a time where I really didn’t know what we were going to have when we went into games. Now we don’t have any question about what we’re going to get. We’re going to get maximum effort and great team play. That doesn’t always equate to wins, but it gives us a chance to win every single time. I’m really proud and excited about the direction of our team.” On Kentucky’s injuries… “Ramel (Bradley) hasn’t practiced much, but he looks more alert from the infection. I don’t know what his status will be tomorrow. I just know that he wasn’t able to play today. Jodie (Meeks) hasn’t been able to practice for a good while, so it looks doubtful for him, but some of those things are day-to-day. Joe (Crawford) looks like his feet aren’t bothering him, but I’m sure they are and he’s just playing through it. We won’t know until game-time comes about cramping and those sorts of things. I assume he’ll have some of those until he gets himself into fantastic condition like he was a couple of weeks ago. Whatever happens, we’ll try to deal with it.” On Auburn… “They have really good players, they’re really athletic and they shoot the basketball so well at every position. I haven’t seen anyone match-up with them very well because they’re quick, which is better than height any time. They have great quickness, and they put so much pressure on your defense. They’ll make threes on you, and if you get out too close to them they’ll drive past you. So, it’s difficult to guard those guys. This team plays hard, and I think they are very much improved defensively. They can really pressure you with their quickness and strength. They changed defense all the time to keep you off balance, so it’s a very difficult matchup for anyone.” On Wednesday’s game at Auburn… “Tomorrow night Auburn is going to play hard and Kentucky is going to play extremely hard. I know that you never know how the game is going to go, but I know what’s going to happen tomorrow night. It’s going to be a very intense game played by both teams and whoever makes the most shots and executes the best will win.” On team positives… “There have been a lot of positive experiences for us that a lot of people don’t recognize. A really great practice is a positive experience that you can put in your bank and go back and look upon it sometime. The tough times you have are experiences you can go back and think about. But, really good experiences where you do get the desired result, no matter what you’re faced with, you can say ‘we’ve been here before and no matter what happens we’re going to work our way out of it.’ I don’t think the attitude, effort, and togetherness are ever going to be absent.” On Bobby Knight’s retirement, announced Tuesday… “I don’t think there could ever be a basketball coach that wasn’t affected by Coach Knight. He was a very compassionate, passionate, and competitive person. It’s a tremendous loss to the game, but I’m very happy for Coach because that’s what he wanted to do at this time. He’s one of the best to ever grace the sidelines, and I really enjoyed our competition when we played at Texas El Paso and Texas A&M. He’s a model for any coach or anyone in coaching because of his ability to teach.”

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